Click Tip - Archive: December 2013

Companies can use many different types of PPC ads. Therefore, companies can try a number of different strategies to see which one resonates best with their targeted audiences including product listing ads, remarketing, retargeting lists for search ads, and dynamic search ads.

When a PPC campaigner is talking to a company CEO, it may be necessary to define each of these terms for the CEO before you can explain all the benefits of the PPC campaign that you have designed for them.

Product Listing Ads - These ads list several different products that a company sells

Remarketing - Allows the PPC campaigner to target customers who have already visited the website so that they keep seeing the ads as they continue to search on related topics

Retargeting Lists for Search Ads - Allows ads to be shown to the targeted audience across many different websites

Dynamic Search Ads - Show the customer the ad based on the content of the website they are visiting

Once the CEO begins to understand the different types of ads, and why you have chosen to combine them as you did in the campaign, then you can begin to show them how effective it is to do this type of advertising. Many CEOs do not want to be bothered with the little details, but are focused on what you are doing to grow his customer base. Therefore, you will want to show the CEO what they can learn from the campaign including:

How focusing on one product over another can greatly increase overall sales

How choosing to spend the right amount on an ad can greatly affect the return on investment

How to optimize the business process

It is also important to be ready to deal with different members of a company when working with large corporations. Each person often only sees their small piece of the company, so relating what you are doing to their part is crucial to your overall success.

Chief Financial Officer - These people are driven by numbers. Usually they do not care about the artistic value of your campaign but what you to be able quickly to prove your value with numbers to support their investment in your campaign. When meeting with these people, be prepared to show your cost per conversion, as well as your conversion rate.

Marketing Officers - These people are most likely to understand what you are doing. When dealing with them, be prepared to show how your campaign is influencing all areas of marketing. When meeting with these people, be prepared to show your ad position, your impression shares, and your quality scores.

Head of Personnel - When PPC campaigns are successful, it is often necessary to hire new workers. Make sure that you help the head of personnel understand where they are going to need those workers depending on how you are asking the potential customer to respond. Often heads of personnel do not care about the actual campaign but just want to know where you need the people

For the PPC campaigner it is important to be able to discuss what you are doing with many different people within the company. So often PPC campaigners are let go not because they are not performing, but because they are unable to focus on what the people above them care about the most. Therefore, arming yourself with this information allows you to build better campaigns with the support of everyone in the company.

If you find a PPC campaigner who will be honest about how they operate their business, one tool that they will likely recommend to you is the Google AdWords Conversion Optimizer. This tool allows campaigners to focus on maximizing conversions by setting a maximum cost-per-acquisition or a target cost-per-acquisition. The program will even recommend a cost-per-acquisition. Before you jump on board with using the tool there are some dirty little secrets that you need to know.

1. Dirty Little Secret #1: You Cannot Bid on Individual Keywords

The campaigner must bid on a group of keywords including the singular keyword, the plural keyword, and any match variations. Instead of being able to bid on a single keyword, the person using the Google AdWords Conversion Optimizer must bid on the package as a whole. Then, they must pray that they bid high enough when their money is split several different ways as opposed to being able to bid a higher amount on a single keyword.

2. Dirty Little Secret #2: Doesn’t Like Enhanced Campaigns

As of July 22, 2013, all Google AdWords became enhanced campaigns requiring campaigners to account for marketing across multiple devices, allowing the use of enhanced context, and offering better analytics. Google AdWords Conversion Optimizer does not care and treats all AdWords campaigns exactly the same way.

3. Dirty Little Secret #3: Requires Work

In order to get the best data from the Google AdWords Conversion Optimizer, it is necessary to turn it off on at least a weekly basis. While it is turned off, run a manual CPC bids. Then, start the Google AdWords Conversion Optimizer again. This tool uses the new data to enhance the results that it is producing. Of course, anything worth having in life requires work. While the tool is turned off, add your long tail keywords. If you try to add them without turning the tool off first, then the system never sees them.

4. Dirty Little Secret #4: Inflates CPCs

The tool will lie to the user and make them think that their CPCs are actually higher than they are in reality. While there is no easy solution for this problem, the campaigner needs to be aware of it and adjust their bids accordingly. This is particularly a problem when the campaign has a low cap as it can shut the campaign off very early in the day.

5. Dirty Little Secret #5: Ignores Other Results

Part of your job is to convince the buyer that you are having a noticeable effort on their other marketing efforts. This tool totally ignores organic, referral, third party, and social marketing efforts. Therefore, to prove your worth to the client, you must be able to show them these results in other ways.

The Google AdWords Conversion Optimizer is a great tool when used correctly. Keeping these five dirty little secrets in mind will assist the campaigner to analyze the data correctly, and position them to run campaigns that are even more successful.